Estate Planning

A basic estate planning package that includes a will, powers of attorney, advanced medical directives, etc. is important for all stages of life, but as you age and your net worth grows, estate planning becomes increasingly critical to realizing your charitable and inheritance legacy goals.  And depending on your specific situation and the growth trajectory of your wealth, more advanced estate planning may be needed.

Because of the drawbacks to the probate process, one of the major goals of estate planning is to bypass probate as much as possible.  Additionally, as your net worth grows, another major goal of estate planning is minimizing exposure to transfer taxes (e.g. gift taxes assessed on transfers made during your lifetime and estate taxes assessed on post-death transfers), because every dollar of wealth surplus not paid to the IRS is one more dollar that can be used for legacy giving.  In partnership with estate planning attorneys – whether you already have one or need a referral from Charis Legacy Partners (always free from any referral fees, of course) – we will help you strategize around the different options for achieving these goals and flesh out which ones make the most sense for you.  The attorney will then finalize legal documents and establish any trusts that may be needed to execute on those strategies.

Depending on your specific situation and goals, we can explore a variety of estate planning strategies with you, including Donor Advised Funds, Private Foundations, Charitable Lead Trusts, Charitable Remainder Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Charitable Annuities, Pooled Income Funds, etc.